November 6, 2011 3:25 pm

In what was his worst performance of the season, Seattle Seahawks quarterback Tarvaris Jackson held himself accountable for not only the mistakes he made on the field, but for his team’s overall performance on offense Sunday in a 23-13 loss at Dallas.

Jackson finished 17 of 30 for 221 yards, no touchdowns and three costly interceptions that Dallas turned into 10 points. Jackson had solid protection most of the day. He was sacked just once, and finished with a 40.4 passer rating.

“I feel very sick about how I played today,” Jackson said. “I just made some stupid mistakes. You can’t do it. I’ve been staying away from those mistakes the whole season, and it’s just one of those games where you just do something stupid.

“So, I’ve got to watch the film. But I already know what I did wrong. But I’ll just watch it and try to get better.”

Jackson went through the three interceptions. He said on the first one he was trying to throw the ball away at the feet of tight end Anthony McCoy, who was running a shallow crossing route. But the ball deflected off a Dallas defensive lineman Jay Ratliff’s leg, and fellow defensive lineman Jason Hatcher corralled it.

There were only two men out in the route Jackson said, and he was still in the pocket, so that’s why he tried to throw it away at the feet of McCoy.

On the second interception, Jackson said he tried to lay it up for Sidney Rice to make a play and under threw him.

“The second one was totally my fault,” Jackson said. “I just tried to give Sid a chance, but I didn’t put enough on it. A horrible throw, and a guy made a pick on the ball.”

On the last interception at the end of the game Jackson said he was trying to get a play in the end zone, and it looked like Doug Baldwin managed to come down with it, but the official gave the interception to Gerald Sensabaugh.

Those painful penalties: Once again, penalties and turnovers led to Seattle’s demise. The Seahawks finished with 10 penalties for 88 yards – seven in the second half alone. They lost the turnover battle again 3-1.

Four of the 10 penalties were on the offensive line. Two (holding and a false start) were on offensive guard Robert Gallery, who appears to still be struggling after returning from groin surgery three weeks ago.

Carroll said the Seahawks may have to do some things in terms changing cadence to help the offensive line. But he also hinted that there could be some moves made there.

“I think we can fix the line of scrimmage,” Carroll said. “We need to make a move there. We have to do something, which we know what we’re doing. But that needs to go away. I’ve been saying that, and that hasn’t happened yet. And I’m disappointed that I’m here talking about that again.”

Asked to clarify what he means about making a move, Carroll seemed to hint it was more about scheme than personnel.

The Byron Maxwell penalties: Carroll addressed the two unsportsmanlike calls on rookie defensive back Byron Maxwell during Seattle’s punts. Maxwell was pushed out-of-bounds both times, but officials ruled that he did not make enough of an effort to get back in bounds on both plays and flagged the Clemson product, which resulted in Seattle giving up some costly field position.

“The first one might have been that he went out on his own but I do not know about that,” Carroll said. “I thought he got knocked out and he stayed out too long. The same exact thing happens again and he thought he made every effort to get back in and they said no.”

Hawks finally run the ball: The Seahawks finished with a season-high 162 yards on the ground. Marshawn Lynch finished with over 100 yards for the first time this season, totaling 135 yards on 23 carries and a touchdown. Lynch averaged 5.9 yards per carry.

It’s the first time Lynch has rushed for over 100 yards during a regular-season game for Seattle.

“It’s something that our offensive line has been wanting,” Seattle offensive tackle Russell Okung said. “And we definitely got that facet of the game going today. We just made a little bit too many mistakes. And when you make that many mistakes, you’re going to lose the game.”

“I think we’re just starting to gel a little bit more,” Okung went on. “Week in and week out we’ve been challenged up front, and now we’re responding.”

“He’s good man,” said Dallas linebacker Bradie James. “I think he is one of the most underrated players in the league when it comes running the ball cuz we were on him. They do a good job of scheme running.”

What happened to the run defense? Seattle allowed a season-high 163 yards on the ground. Rookie running back DeMarco Murray finished with 139 yards on 22 carries, the first time Seattle allowed a 100-yard rusher this season

The last time someone rushed for 100 yards against Seattle was against Tampa Bay in the second-to-last game of the regular season when LeGarrette Blount ran for 164 yards on 18 carries.

“He was able to get on the outside of us,” Seattle defensive end Red Bryant said. “They were actually keeping the linemen tied up on us, and making it where I felt like our linebackers and skilled position players had to make tackles. And to DeMarco’s credit, he did a great job of stretching our defense.”

No pass rush: Tony Romo had yet another impressive game against Seattle, throwing for 279 yards and two touchdowns. Romo finished with a 112.2 passer rating, completing nine passes of 10 or more yards, and three passes of 30 or more yards.

But while Seattle’s secondary struggled to contain Romo, the real issue was the Seahawks inability to create a pass rush. The Seahawks finished without a sack for the third time this season (San Francisco and Atlanta), and just two quarterback hurries.

Defensive end Chris Clemons is a pretty good barometer at how Seattle rushes the passer, and he had no tackles and just one quarterback hurry.

“If you get that kind of time it is going to be a good day,” Romo said.

More red zone issues: The Seahawks effectively move the ball in between the 20s but struggled to put the ball into the end zone. Seattle now has just two touchdowns in three games.

“We’re moving the ball and getting it down there, but we’ve go to be able to put the ball in the end zone,” Jackson said. “It’s a big difference between three points and seven. We’ve got to be able to get seven. Just getting down there and moving the ball is not good enough.”

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About

Gregg Bell joined The News Tribune in July 2014. Bell had been the director of writing for the University of Washington's athletic department for four years. He was the senior national sports writer in Seattle for The Associated Press from 2005-10, covering the Seahawks in their first Super Bowl season and beyond. He's also been The Sacramento Bee's beat writer on the Oakland Athletics and Raiders. The native of Steubenville, Ohio, is a 1993 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., and a 2000 graduate of the University of California, Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism.

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Any changes to the o-line that don’t include sitting Gallery are nothing more than windrow dressing.

And Jackson’s first pass went off Ratliff’s arm, not his leg. If you’re throwing the ball at a receiver’s feet, then do it. No lineman ought to be able to bat the ball in the air with his arm that the QB is intending to throw away.

Watching the Packers and Chargers shoot it out today….really REALLY lets everyone know just how far away we are. I actually gained alot of respect for Jackson this year. I was livid when we picked him up and just about had a stroke when declared the starter. He plays tough and seems to give his all. For that im thankful to him. That said, he isnt a top-tier QB and he and Checkdown Charlie arent fit to lead this team when we want to go. Im going to hang-tuff this season and keep on cheering…Next season we need to draft QB ( duh ) and we need to get a top-tier pass-rusher to add to the d-line.

Aaron Rogers and Philip Rivers should be all anyone needs to see to know we’re light years away from being a playoff team. I don’t care how good our defense is – the league has changed and it’s a QB driven league now. If you don’t have a top shelf QB you are not going to be competitive.

Jackson continues to prove with many of us already knew: He’s not an NFL starter people. Get over it. He’s not the future, he never will be.

I had the feeling that Jackson was trying too hard to make things happen. Maybe his better play the last few weeks has made him overconfident.

In previous weeks, he’d take the sack or throw the ball away fast, but today he really looked like he was trying to force things. Definitely a poor performance. But I’d like to see Saint Rice be a lot more consistent. The guy with the big contract has the biggest expectations.

The quarterback play was atrocious today, but the O line showed signs of greatness. The fact the Ware was nearly invisible today was a huge plus. The fact that Lynch had space to run and got some good momentum is really cool…just wish I’d have started him on my fantasy team today! lol…

Kenard Cox had a good game and the kicking game was better, too. I hate losing to the Cowboys, so in the end, I guess the only stat that really matters is the final score.

I don’t think the QB play was atrocious. Atrocious is how CW played in Cleveland. TJ needed to play a perfect game for the Seahawks to have a chance at a win and he didn’t. But if that FG hadn’t been blocked, it would have been a one-score game at the end. Yes, the Cowboys dominated, but last year’s team would have lost by 21 points. I still think a pass-rusher is a bigger priority in the first round next year than a QB.

I thought Jackson was playing really well and I’m not that mad about his 2nd INT. Because of the countless times per game where I say “For the love of god just toss it up really high for Rice or BMW!” I have been a Whitehurst guy all along but Jackson has started to grow on me and I wouldn’t mind it I guess if he was the backup next year.

Gallery is horrible. I’m shocked that the cowboys didn’t just line Ware up over him every play after he destroyed him early in the game. Murray had some good runs but overall I was ok with the defense. 23 points isn’t ideal, but we (well, I) should expect at least 23 points from our offense.

And the pass rush is hard especially against Romo who is very good at diagnosing defenses and knowing where the ball will go based on that. The cowboys only had one garbage time sack on the seahawks who have given up more sacks then any team in the league! Are the Cowboys clamoring for a top tier pass rusher??? No, they have one. But you can’t expect 5 sacks a game, every game.

I think right now Seattle Seahawks is stuck with Jackson for the rest of season as Carroll has no faith in Portis.. I call Bull on Portis not knowing the offensive because let face it 49ers got this division & Seahawks has about much chance to get to playoff as Miami getting Andrew luck.. Thought what is wrong with Pete Carroll & his offensive calling, I thought T Jackson work best in the hurry up offensive… Need to score some TD’s…

In what appears to be a hold over from the Mora days, our tight end is non existent. Previously it was because they needed to keep him in to protect. Now, the guy just isn’t used. $34 million for a decoy, what a rip.

Gallery is a waste. I still dislike Tom Cable, and I think Gallery may be his love child since he had such a hard on for him. The Raiders are still running the ball without Gallery or Cable. Maybe those two really weren’t all that.

One sack in garbage time does not mean Ware blew the team up all day.

I think the league has told the refs to look at the Hawks young players and nail them for every penalty they can get. It wasn’t happening early on, and we still have the same guys on the field. IMO, the refs are now paying more attention. Since they now call PI for breathing on a guy, why can’t Seattle get a break in that area? Baldwin with a catch and tie goes to the offensive player. Obviously not under a PC team it doesn’t.

Go Lynch. The guy was a hammer for Buffalo. The O-line finally opened up some holes for the guy and he ran it out of the stadium. Lynch is by no means garbage or junk. He is better than Sean Alexander, post contract extension. Sean had a consistent O-line but his pants kept falling down from all the money he stole. Troy Aikman put it bluntly when he said “Sean Alexander runs like he is looking for a place to fall down”. Lynch does not run this way. When you are concsistently hit 2-3 yards behind the line of scrimmage, your O-line is getting blown up.

Just once I’d like to see the whole team play a complete 60 minutes. That means keep the penalties under 5. No 100 yrd rusher. No 250 yd passer. Put 24 points on the board. No special teams gaffs. Yes that’s a lot to ask. If they can do it before then end of the season, it would be nice. I’m not holding my breathe.

TJack is hit and miss. CW is a total bust. My prediction is he is off the roster before the draft. Portis, what can you say. He hasn’t had a chance to prove anything. We won’t get Luck. I don’t want Barkley. And don’t even think about taking a QB from Boise State. He’s a product of a system. Pretty much any guy who can count the number of snaps he took from under center in college on one hand will take way too long to develop, if he can be developed at all. I’d take the kid from Baylor before I take the guy from Boise. At least he plays a tough schedule.

I’m still sticking with 4-12. With the two more wins coming against St. Louis. Maybe 5 wins if we catch the Cards at a bad time.

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